"Merely because a person is alleged to have committed some offence, it can never be a ground for demolition..."

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told #SupremeCourt only homes violating municipal laws were demolished

This is not true, our reporting over 3 yrs reveals

THREAD
1/n “Jis ghar se patthar aaye hain, us ghar ko pattharon ka hi ghar banayenge (Whichever homes stones came from, we will turn into piles of stones)”
#MadhyaPradesh home minister Narottam Mishra said in 2022
@legallyuddin on illegal nature of demolitions

2/narticle-14.com/post/demolitio…

The J&K High Court today quashed detention of 27-yr-old #Kashmiri journalist Sajad Gul, 22 months after he was imprisoned under Public Safety Act, which allows 2 yrs in jail without trial, day after the Court granted bail to editor Fahad Shah, previously detained under PSA
1/14 Filing 3 FIRs under 8 sections of the law, police had accused Gul of “creating obstacles” in an encroachment drive; allegedly uploading a video showing locals raising “anti-national slogans”; spreading “fake & false narrative” about an anti-terrorist operation
2/14

Homes with ‘completion certificates’ & funds from #Modi’s flagship housing scheme among ‘illegal encroachments’ demolished in Daman.
Residents, some OBCs & some “immigrants”, paid water/power bills, taxes for years
@___mpg____ reports
THREAD
1/8
article-14.com/post/-another-… “They didn’t even let us take our fan”

Pushpa Devi, 30, mother of 3, wife of paani-puri vendor whose house was demolished in Master Sheri area of #Daman, run by unelected #Modi aide & administrator Praful Khoda Patel, who also governs Lakshadweep, where, too, he’s evoked ire
2/8

“Cut down the forest, dry up the rivers, finish them off”

Pramot Singh of extremist Meitei Leepun in #Manipur on 28 April. @KimiColney on how state govt ignored/aided tensions between tribal Kukis & majority Meitei, spiralling into anarchy

THREAD

1/14

article-14.com/post/manipur-o… “I never said this, but I love you mummy.”

Terrified 11-yr-old to his mother Mangalleima, a Meitei from Australia, trapped in their home village in Churachandpur, #Manipur, as it was attacked by Kukis on 3 May.

>80 are dead, 35,000 homeless

2/14

Why mechanics, garages worry about #ElectricVehicle revolution: Only 2% of India’s vehicles are EVs, but sales rose 155% in 2022-23. @kavithawrites on need to re-skill large workforce to ensure #JustTransition 

THREAD 1/4

article-14.com/post/india-s-t… “Every third vehicle that I see is an #ElectricVehicle. It will have an impact on small informal workers like mechanics, spare parts dealers: Y Vamshi Krishna, owner of service centre in #Hyderabad. Millions wary of #electricMobility revolution’s impact on #labour. 2/4

India has dropped 11 places in the World Press Freedom Index, from 150 in 2022 to 161 in 2023
rsf.org/en/country/ind… "The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in 'the world’s largest democracy.'"

“Some days it’s so hot that our skin burns, or we have flood.” Renuka Pawar watches over her infant in her kopi, a makeshift home where she lives 6 months a year near sugarcane fields. #Climate risks are rising for #migrant workers. @iyerkavi

THREAD

1/4
article-14.com/post/sugar-s-b… “We’ve lived like this for generations.” Renuka Pawar does not think better #housing is possible for #Maharashtra’s #sugarcane #migrantworkers. A young mother to a months old infant, she has no access to toilets or running water, cooks on a wood hearth outdoors.

2/4

Prabhakar Bhagyawant got 30 stitches after he fell 20 ft  from a tractor transporting #sugarcane. He lost 45 work days, couldn’t work off a an advance payment. @iyerkavi on a debt bondage system that persists in #India's richest state economy

Thread 

1/5
article-14.com/post/sugar-s-b… “Neither the sugar factory nor the labour contractor will pay for medical expenses.” Bhagyawant, 39, of Dharur in #Beed, #Maharashtra, has migrated to #Karnataka for 20 years as #sugarcane harvest worker. The Rs 25,000 hospital bill will be recovered from his pay

2/5

“She won’t stop crying”

With no local lawyer ready to fight her case & threats allegedly made to Delhi lawyers, family of traumatised Muslim law student narrates how she spent 54 days in jail before #SupremeCourt gave bail. @Samriddhi0809 reports

1/11

article-14.com/post/after-54-… Sonu Mansoori’s ordeal began when lawyers accosted the 21-yr-old for recording bail hearing of a #BajrangDal man in a court in Indore on 28 Jan. They searched her, found Rs 1 lakh & accused her of being “spy” for the banned Popular Front of India



2/11

Yesterday, a #SupremeCourt bench led by the Chief Justice gave the home ministry 2 weeks—first ordered in Sept 2022—to collate data on cases filed & action taken against attacks on #Christians.
Here is a thread on our investigations of attacks against #Christians in 3 states
1/5 In Nov 2021, @nikita_jain15 reported from #Uttarakhand how civil rights campaigners recorded 305 attacks against Christians in 21 states between Jan-Sept 2021, almost every attack followed by a police case against a pastor alleging religious conversion.
article-14.com/post/pastors-a…

“I can make Rs 25000 a month, if I work 15 hours a day, 7 days a week.” Delivery boy Mohammed Arif Khan gets no provident fund, no paid leave, no growth prospects. @anweganguly & @touhid_rahat on working conditions of #GigWorkers

THREAD 1/ 5

article-14.com/post/gig-work-… “Khan is not insured. “Only if I die while delivering, my family will receive up to Rs 5,00,000. If they are aware of it.” Despite 2020 Social Security Code for #labour calling to include #GigWorkers,  companies do not treat them as employees.

2/5

The Rs-35,000 Maulana Azad govt fellowship that Shamsher Singh, son of a Punjabi Sikh daily wage worker, received every month did more than fund his PhD. It threw a lifeline to his penurious family. All this has now ended. Follow this THREAD

1/12

article-14.com/post/-how-modi… Contending—without explaining how—that it overlapped with other scholarships, #Modi govt in Dec 2022 ended fellowships for minority MPhil, PhD students. As @ainulrhbr & @arshiiqureshi report, this overlap isn’t possible & reveals a larger trend.

2/12

Jailed #Kashmiri activist Khurram Parvez, 45, is one of 3 “outstanding activists” who will receive the @martinennals award for 2023, it was announced today in Geneva
The other 2 are Feliciano Reyna of Venezuela & Delphine Kemneloum Djiraibé of Chad

https://twitter.com/martinennals/status/1616039043766145025?s=20&t=5xzumrVhuS-ZUSrneUnTrw

1/10 The Martin Ennals Award is an annual prize for human rights defenders, selected by a jury of 10 of the world’s leading human rights NGOs. The Award provides protection & support to human rights defenders at risk martinennalsaward.org/chad-venezuela…
2/10

“I have to say that all these guys are essentially clueless about the development process”. @Princeton economist & writer of new book “India is Broken” @AshokaMody to @iyerkavi on @MorganStanley @McKinsey @WorldBank predictions for #India

article-14.com/post/-a-small-… "Since about the early 1990s, an Indian elite, which lives first world lives, has set the domestic narrative in the media and politics. A corresponding group in the first world has echoed that narrative."

On 13 Dec 2001, 5 men in explosives-laden car tried to bomb Parliament. In the trial that followed, late K G Kannabiran, a civil rights lawyer, who appeared for 1 of the accused, believed justice had not been done. An exclusive excerpt from his memoirs 1/5
article-14.com/post/the-flawe… Kannabiran’s book, The Speaking Constitution, translated posthumously from the original Telugu by his daughter Kalpana, published by @HarperCollinsIN, explains why he viewed the conviction of Kashmiri separatist Afzal Guru as a travesty of justice. 2/5

Violence against journalists, the politically partisan media & the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, says 2022 report of
@RSF_inter

#India's rank down to 150/180 from 142/180 in 2021

THREAD
1/n India is one of the world's "most dangerous countries for the media", says the report. 10 journalists are in jail & average of 3 or 4 journalists are killed in connection with their work every year.2/n

Violence against journalists, the politically partisan media & the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, says 2022 report of @RSF_inter

#India's rank down to 150/180 from 142/180 in 2021

THREAD
1/n India is one of the world's "most dangerous countries for the media", says the report. 10 journalists are in jail & average of 3 or 4 journalists are killed in connection with their work every year.
2/n

Writer, prof & #BhimaKoregaon accused #AnandTeltumbde spent 948 days in prison before Bombay HC found no prima facie case & granted bail, challenged by NIA in SC, which on Friday will decide if he walks out of jail. @ChitrangadaC reports. 1/11

article-14.com/post/a-profess… When #SupremeCourt considers bail on Friday, it will be one of handful in 4 yrs to evaluate merit of #NIA case under anti-terror law #UAPA against 16 #BhimaKoregaon accused. SC cleared arrest of some in 2018, with current chief justice dissenting. 2/11

As the #SupremeCourt demands the registration of criminal cases against #HateSpeech without formal complaints, our research & reportage over more than 2 years reveals the extent of #hatespeech in #India & the extent of inaction against it.
THREAD In Aug 2021 @ZafarAafaq & @alishan_jafri reported how rally urging marginalisation & murder of #Muslims in Delhi was 5th such event over 3 months in NCR & Haryana: some events shared common instigators, mobs allowed with minimal or no police action article-14.com/post/event-cal…

“This is dangerous. What happened to J&K sets a precedent for other states.”
@AdnanAshrafMir of @JKPC_, petitioner in challenge to removal of #Article370 in #Jammu & #Kashmir. Case pending before #SupremeCourt for 1115 days. Last hearing: 2.5 yrs ago
1/6
article-14.com/post/lots-of-s… In April 2022, a petitioner in J&K #Article370 abrogation case requested Chief Justice N V Ramana’s bench for a hearing.
His answer: “We’ll see”.
He said he would reconstitute 5-judge bench & hear case “after the vacation”, which ended on 10 July. There was no hearing
2/6

Chief Justice N V Ramana retires on 26 Aug, delivering during his tenure 29 lectures on guarding/improving #India’s laws & #Constitution. Yet, as @OfficialSauravD’s analysis found, he did not walk his talk, providing no hearings for vital cases. 1/11

article-14.com/post/lots-of-s… Instead of 5-6 days, it’s been 159 days since a special petition was filed against #Karnataka HC ruling upholding govt hijab ban in state educational institutions. “It just shows #SupremeCourt is reluctant to hear the matter:” Fauzia Shakil, case lawyer. 2/11